'No trespassing' signs pop up on Humarock Beach

Natalie Lovell, 82, walks up and down Humarock Beach several times a week, a routine she’s kept up for the past 30 years. She said she never felt unwelcome until Monday. A dejected Lovell sat on the sea wall at Humarock Beach looking at three signs sticking out of the sand. The signs contained the words “private beach,” “no trespassing” and “no sunbathing.”

By Patrick Ronan

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Patrick Ronan

Posted Sep. 25, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 25, 2012 at 8:25 PM

By Patrick Ronan

Posted Sep. 25, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 25, 2012 at 8:25 PM

SCITUATE

» Social News

Natalie Lovell, 82, walks up and down Humarock Beach several times a week, a routine she’s kept up for the past 30 years. She said she never felt unwelcome until Monday.

A dejected Lovell sat on the sea wall at Humarock Beach looking at three signs sticking out of the sand. The signs contained the words “private beach,” “no trespassing” and “no sunbathing.”

“I don’t think that’s right,” Lovell, a Norwell resident, said. “I think people should be able to go on the beach.”

The signs were put up by a beachfront homeowner last Friday after Scituate officials discovered that the town had no legal right of ownership on Humarock Beach. Therefore, much of the beach is owned by the residents living along the shoreline.

The new signs are attracting plenty of attention, most of it negative. There were several reports of vandalism over the weekend. One sign was marked with a swastika, Scituate Town Administrator Patricia Vinchesi said.

The only public portion of the beach is a 300-foot stretch of sand and rocks near the beach entrance at Marshfield Avenue. The town has put up its own signs to delineate where the public beach ends.

“If people set up a beach chair or blanket outside the signs, they could be asked to move by the residents,” Vinchesi said.

But there are exceptions to private-property restrictions on a beach. State law says the public has the right to use all tidelands – the space between the high-tide and low-tide marks – for walking, for fishing and for bird watching, regardless if the beach is private.

Vinchesi said the town intentionally waited until the beach season was over before putting up the signs to give people enough notice for next year. She said the selectmen will discuss the issue during their Oct. 2 meeting.

The beachfront homeowner who posted the signs – and did not want to be identified out of fear for his personal safety – said he may put up a temporary fence next summer to mark where the private beach begins. He said that last fall, he and several other neighbors asked town officials to clarify the beach property lines.

He said the beachfront residents don’t want to get sued if someone gets injured on their properties. Also, he said some people had a tendency to walk through their properties to get to the beach, and, on some occasions, people urinated on their property during late-night beach parties.

In response to the homeowner’s concerns, Vinchesi said the town researched the assessor records and property deeds, then consulted with the town’s attorney.

“The town doesn’t have a direct title to the beach,” Vinchesi said. “We do on every other beach in Scituate, but not in Humarock.”

Page 2 of 2 - Next summer, beachgoers who want to lay out at Humarock will have to stay within the 300-feet stretch of public beach off Marshfield Avenue.

Steve Tripp has owned the home at 30 Marshfield Ave. – which borders the beach entrance – for the past 28 years. He said the three signs put up by his neighbors were “silly.”

“I’m not making an issue of it,” Tripp said. “I’m not complaining that they just consolidated the public beach area to right in front of my house and in front of the one (house) next door.”

Bob Fisher, Marshfield’s varsity boys basketball coach, walked along Humarock Beach on Monday. He said he was shocked to see the “no trespassing” signs because he had assumed that all beaches were open to the public.

“If they could do it (post the signs), that means every house here could do it,” Fisher said, “and you couldn’t come in here.”